CBC is looking into the optical industry.............................

[Chris Ryser]

On December 23 got an interesting e-mail from an associate producer of the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) on the subject of vertical integration in the eyeglass industry. Following is part of the text:

I'm an associate producer at CBC TV in Toronto. I'm doing some researchabout vertical integration in the eyeglasses industry and came acrosssome of your posts on Optiboard. I was hoping that we could speak on thephone for my research. This would just be on background -- it's early inmy research so I'm not at the point where I need to quote anyone -- butit would be wonderful to get your thoughts on this issue.

I am not mentioning names at this point. We had a quite long telephone conversation. They are just at the start of putting together some show on the subject and are doing a research, apparently triggered by a lot of consumer demands. OptiBoard seems to reach quite far these days.